Believe it or not, I've been using this software for a few years. One of the things that I've never quite understood how to use it is on a brew day. For awhile, I'd been saving my recipes to the cloud and then using the mobile app for the brewday timer and session data. Great. Ok. So I record when things go into the fermenter and the gravity. Make the beer, swell. Come back a few months later and I want to make that beer again. I open up the recipe, this is where I'm just confused. How would I pull up the old notes and session data? What if I couldn't get cascade hops and had to make a substitution or I wanted to try a different yeast. Do I need to duplicate the recipe and note all that in the name?? If I update the ingredients in, say, Pale Ale, does it update the ingredients for the previous brew session too? I'm just sooooooo very confused and I've always been confused with this. Hoping to get an idea of how best to use this on a brew day and the next brew day and the one after that and every time I make this recipe. thanks
-
Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.
Using BeerSmith 3 on brew days
- Thread starter frito
- Start date
Here is how I do it
On my PC, create a recipe in my Recipe folder, when I'm done and ready to brew, I copy it to the Cloud
This allows me to use the Recipe at the Beer store and then on brew day
On brew day I take my notes
When done, on my PC I MOVE the recipe to my Brew Log
I have never used Versioning in BS, the Brew date works just fine
A recipe is just that, what you intend to brew and you tweak it like you would any other recipe to suite your taste
What you brewed is what goes into the Brew Log and it should never be changed, b/c it represents what happened on Brew day for that one brew
See my brew log attached, the only difference between the duplicates is the date, the differences in Hops and brew day notes
Does this help?
On my PC, create a recipe in my Recipe folder, when I'm done and ready to brew, I copy it to the Cloud
This allows me to use the Recipe at the Beer store and then on brew day
On brew day I take my notes
When done, on my PC I MOVE the recipe to my Brew Log
I have never used Versioning in BS, the Brew date works just fine
A recipe is just that, what you intend to brew and you tweak it like you would any other recipe to suite your taste
What you brewed is what goes into the Brew Log and it should never be changed, b/c it represents what happened on Brew day for that one brew
See my brew log attached, the only difference between the duplicates is the date, the differences in Hops and brew day notes
Does this help?
Attachments
Thanks. I'm going to try that. Also create a TBB (To Be Brewed) folder. That's been another problem. I picked a couple recipes to brew a month ago and then went on the keto diet. Doh! Getting around to having something ready for the holidays. Shoot, which beers was I going to make. So I had to deduce based on the ingredients I had already purchased.
I did notice that when I changed the version of a recipe and tried to close it, it asked if I wanted to save a new copy because I changed the version. Then it saved a Recipe (1.1) so maybe that's how that works.
Thanks for the response!
I did notice that when I changed the version of a recipe and tried to close it, it asked if I wanted to save a new copy because I changed the version. Then it saved a Recipe (1.1) so maybe that's how that works.
Thanks for the response!
Kevin58
Grandmaster Brewer
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2017
- Messages
- 765
- Reaction score
- 66
There is no reason to create a a to be brewed folder. That can be handled by the brew log function.
Create a recipe and then copy to brew log. The copy in the recipe folder is the one I call my master copy. I never work on that one after it has been created.
Note that all copies of the same recipe are independent of each other. Changes made in one do not affect the other.
The copy in the brew log is where I make my final tweaks for brew day... I change the date to the actual brew day, adjust the alpha acid numbers to match the hops I bought etc. All of the actual brew day data and notes are also recorded on this copy. I never work on or change this copy after brew day. It becomes part of my brew day historical record.
If I want to brew this beer again I go to the recipe log and copy the master to the brew log and the process begins again.
If I ever want to create a new version of an existing recipe... let's say I have a pale ale in my recipe folder. That recipe is my master but I want to see how it turns out if I add pumpkin to it. I will make a copy of the pale ale master and paste it in the same folder. (Beersmith doesn't require copies to have different names) I will rename that copy and now have a base recipe to work in without having to rebuild it from the ground up.
That last bit can make for a nice time saving tip by the way. If there are parts of your brew day that are the same every time like adding your base water... adding fining agents... adding yeast nutrient... turning on pumps/adding chiller to sanitize... create a recipe with just those things in it and save it as your recipe template. This will save you from adding all those steps each time you create a new recipe.
Create a recipe and then copy to brew log. The copy in the recipe folder is the one I call my master copy. I never work on that one after it has been created.
Note that all copies of the same recipe are independent of each other. Changes made in one do not affect the other.
The copy in the brew log is where I make my final tweaks for brew day... I change the date to the actual brew day, adjust the alpha acid numbers to match the hops I bought etc. All of the actual brew day data and notes are also recorded on this copy. I never work on or change this copy after brew day. It becomes part of my brew day historical record.
If I want to brew this beer again I go to the recipe log and copy the master to the brew log and the process begins again.
If I ever want to create a new version of an existing recipe... let's say I have a pale ale in my recipe folder. That recipe is my master but I want to see how it turns out if I add pumpkin to it. I will make a copy of the pale ale master and paste it in the same folder. (Beersmith doesn't require copies to have different names) I will rename that copy and now have a base recipe to work in without having to rebuild it from the ground up.
That last bit can make for a nice time saving tip by the way. If there are parts of your brew day that are the same every time like adding your base water... adding fining agents... adding yeast nutrient... turning on pumps/adding chiller to sanitize... create a recipe with just those things in it and save it as your recipe template. This will save you from adding all those steps each time you create a new recipe.